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Disease numbers prior to 1950

post #1 of 10
11/27/12 at 6:01pm
Thread Starter 
Does anyone know where to find actual disease data prior to 1950? The CDC reports actual numbers starting in 1950 but nothing prior. I presume this is because the CDC was essentially formed in 1946 and primarily concerned with malaria. Anyways, in my vaccination research, I see lots of reference to disease prevalence in the 1940s but I can't figure out where those numbers come from. To whom were they reported and by whom?
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post #2 of 10
11/27/12 at 6:10pm

the only actual data I know of is in the pink book.

post #3 of 10
11/27/12 at 6:30pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rrrrrachel View Post

the only actual data I know of is in the pink book.

Which doesn't seem to list actual numbers prior to 1950s. There are graphs on various disease pages that allude to numbers prior to then but the cases and deaths file starts in 1950 so I'm trying to figure out if there was some other agency or means of tracking this information. The numbers from the 1940s must come from somewhere, right?
post #4 of 10
11/27/12 at 6:37pm

Unfortunately not all data is publicly available.

post #5 of 10
11/27/12 at 6:54pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rrrrrachel View Post

Unfortunately not all data is publicly available.

Why would data before 1950 be secret? That still doesn't really answer the question of who was tracking this information and how if the CDC didn't exist?

If I recall correctly, I had replied to a post of yours where you replied to someone with, "They found a temporal correlation using unreliable data." Yet, everyplace you've pointed me to so far is exactly that --- temporal correlation using unreliable data.
post #6 of 10
11/27/12 at 6:58pm
I dot see why the data is unreliable? I also don't think it's a secret. Obviously plenty of researchers have access to it because they reference it. It just may not be freely available on the Internet. I believe I also pointed out that there was a lot of experimental evidence to back up that "temporal correlation".
post #7 of 10
11/27/12 at 7:03pm

I've been looking for historical data on morbidity rates myself - to no avail so far.

 

However, this looks promising though unfortunately it's still in beta version - and only those invited can use it for now.  Hope it'll be available to public in the near future.

 

Project Tycho

Open Access to Public Health Data
http://www.tycho.pitt.edu/index.php

 

From the website:

We digitized and made accessible data from a total of 6300 weekly reports (containing 35,000 tables) published between 1888 and 2011. Weekly reports were obtained from various online libraries including PubMed Central, the Hathi Trust Digital Library and the MMWR web pages, and from bound library copies.

post #8 of 10
11/27/12 at 7:23pm
Thread Starter 
This is great! I hope it's released soon. Thanks.
post #9 of 10
11/27/12 at 8:26pm

I thought I remembered seeing some from Canada - and -tada - I did.  

 

I hope it is helpful to some of you.

 

You can change from one VAD to another by simply erasing the disease from the web address and adding in a new VAD. 

 

The following have stats from 1929 onwards:

 

diptheria:

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/im/vpd-mev/diphtheria-eng.php

 

measles (with a period missing on the graph)

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/im/vpd-mev/measles-rougeole-eng.php

 

pertussis:

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/im/vpd-mev/pertussis-eng.php


Edited by kathymuggle - 11/27/12 at 9:05pm
post #10 of 10
11/27/12 at 8:38pm

OT - but from the pertussis link above:

 

"As seen in Figure 1 , a resurgence of pertussis was observed beginning in 1990. This was likely due to a combination of factors, including the low efficacy of the combined adsorbed diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis whole-cell vaccine used in children in Canada between 1980 and 1997, waning immunity from the previous vaccine among adolescents and adults, as well as increased physician awareness and improved diagnosis and reporting of pertussis infection. The whole cell vaccines were replaced with acellular vaccines made from purified antigens of B. pertussis in 1997/98 in Canada."  

 

The above came from a page that was last modified on 2012-07-23

 
 

WHHAAAATTT?  I swear, you cannot make this stuff up.

 

One of ideas being explored at the moment is a return to whole cell pertussis as they think it might be more effective .

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/pertussis-vax-effectiveness/

 

And yet the Canadian government is currently saying we moved to acellular because whole cell had low efficacy.

 

 

 

 


Edited by kathymuggle - 11/27/12 at 8:54pm
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